The present invention relates to the field of ice beakers. The invention has been developed, in particular with regard to moulds for producing ice beakers and to a support for supporting such a beaker in use.
German utility model DE 296 09 553 U relates to a support for use for ice beakers and to a system for producing them by means of complementary male and female moulds. It is known, from this document, to arrange the male and female moulds in a manner such that when they are coupled they form a series of cavities to be filled with water. A hen the water is frozen, it forms beaker-shaped frozen structures which are removed by separating the male mould from the female mould. In order to use an ice beaker of this type it is necessary to provide a respective support which supports the beaker and possibly collects the water which is produced as the beaker gradually melts. Naturally, the support must be formed in a manner such that the water collected does not escape from the support when the support and the ice beaker are inclined for drinking.
The above-mentioned utility model describes and illustrates a type of metal support with a frusto-conical body supported by a hollow stem in which the water produced as the ice beaker melts is collected. The side walls of the frusto-conical body widen out from the stem and are inclined in a manner substantially similar to the inclination of the walls of the ice beaker to be housed in the support. Extending from the upper edge of the frusto-conical support are elongate appendages at the ends of which stop pins are formed for welding to the outer wall of the ice beaker in order to hold it in position relative to the support, both in the erect position of the support and in the inclined position adopted by the support and by the ice beaker during drinking.
Known supports have many disadvantages, the first of which is the fact that the ice beaker is not stable inside the support and, in particular, tends to move to and fro to a greater extent the more its outer wall has melted. Moreover as the ice beaker melts it also tends to move down towards the base of the support so that its to and fro movements can lead to some portions of the outer wall of the ice beaker moving towards the side wall of the support until they touch it; in this condition, some of the water of the melting ice beaker may find its route towards the base or stem of the support obstructed and may overflow from the support. This dripping outside the support is added to the condensation which forms on the outside of the support because of the intense cooling due to direct contact with the ice, possibly over quite large areas.
Another disadvantage of known supports is that it is difficult to remove all of the water held in the supports when they are being prepared for subsequent use. The presence of the partition in fact gives rise to an undercut which prevents the water from escaping not only whilst the support is in use, which is desirable, but also after use when the ice beaker has completely melted.
Another disadvantage of the known supports is that the cost of the ice beaker is considerably less that that of the support, which has to be re-used over and over again. This renders the use of the supports of known type disadvantageous when it is not possible to check that they are all returned after use, for example, in crowded locations such as discotheques, swimming pools, beaches, sports stadia, and the like.
A further disadvantage of known supports is that they are quite complex to manufacture and bulky to store. Moreover, the aesthetic form of these supports is defined at the production stage and it is therefore particularly expensive to differentiate production in order to offer for sale supports of various shapes and styles.
More generally, in addition to the drawbacks connected with known supports, the use of ice beakers is not very widespread because of the substantially small-scale and complex production technique of the beakers themselves. Productivity for ice beakers produced by known techniques is generally low which limits their distribution in locations much frequented by the public. Moreover, for the domestic use of ice beakers in which the limited number of ice beakers which can be produced by conventional techniques would not be a critical factor for their distribution, the considerable bulkiness of the known male and female moulds, combined with the need to provide special supports also restricts the distribution of ice beakers in the domestic field.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art, first of all by proposing a support for an ice beaker which is easy to store or in any case compact, easy to use and of pleasant appearance. A further object of the invention is to propose a support for an ice beaker which supports an ice beaker firmly, even at an advanced stave of melting, and which drastically reduces the risk of water dripping out of the support. Another object of the invention is to provide a support of the type indicated above which is simple and inexpensive to produce so that its cost is quickly offset to the point at which it can even be used only once as a xe2x80x9cdisposablexe2x80x9d product. A further object of the invention is to provide a support for an ice beaker which is aesthetically pleasing and which can be offered in aesthetic configurations of various types without this leading to high production or storage costs. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a mould for producing ice beakers which can easily also be used as a support for the ice beaker.
To achieve the objects indicated above, the subject of the invention is a support for an ice beaker with an inclined outer wall which is characterized in that it comprises regions, arranged spaced apart along the height of the beaker when it is in the upright position, for supporting and restraining the outer wall of an ice beaker.
In one embodiment, the supporting and restraining regions comprise projections arranged spaced apart on the side wall of a beaker-shaped body and oriented towards the interior thereof, the side wall of the support being inclined to an extent substantially equal to the inclination of the side wall of the ice beaker. Preferably, but not exclusively, the projections are formed integrally with the beaker-shaped body which can advantageously be produced by moulding of a plastics material, although the possibility of using other materials should not be excluded. The arrangement of the projections may adopt a configuration such as additionally to confer an aesthetic quality on the support.
An additional feature of the embodiment mentioned above is the presence of a flexible partition which can easily be removed from the support and which has the dual function of holding the water in the base of the support, even when the support is inclined for drinking, and of preventing the ice beaker from moving downwards in the support beyond a predetermined limit to prevent the ice from obstructing the regions in which the water flows towards the base of the support and/or to prevent the ice from coming into contact with relatively large areas of the side wall of the support.
In another embodiment, the support for an ice beaker comprises a spiral member the coils of which project inwardly relative to the side wall of the support. The spiral member conveys the water produced during the melting of the ice towards the base of the support and, at the same time, constitutes a barrier for the water which has collected in the base of the support when the support is inclined during drinking. The spiral member may be removable and, in this case, can be used in association with any conventional beaker the side wall of which is inclined to an extent substantially equal to the inclination of the side wall of the ice beaker. The spiral member may also be formed integrally on the side wall of a conventional beaker. In particular, it is possible to produce, in plastics material with programmed deformation, xe2x80x9cdisposablexe2x80x9d beakers, the side walls of which can be deformed before use to form spiral recesses.
One of the advantages of the present invention is, in particular, that the ability to manufacture xe2x80x9cdisposablexe2x80x9d supports in large quantities from inexpensive plastics material can favour the use of ice beakers in large quantities, particularly in locations much frequented by the public. In this case, the number of ice beakers which can be produced by conventional methods by means of male and female moulds could be inadequate, particularly in view of the fairly long periods of time which are required for the water to freeze in the cavities defined between the male and female moulds. To avoid this drawback, a further subject of the invention is an ice-making device particularly suitable for producing large quantities of ice beakers usable with a support of the type indicated above.